CHAPTER 16 - GOAL: RESCUE!

The villagers of the legacy village were set into motion, like the ants on a frying pan. The sun was shining and the sky was clear with clear white clouds of various shapes floating around in the sky. But, no one was in the mood to enjoy this pleasant scenery. They were informed just a few minutes ago that some of them were trapped in the mysterious forest right outside the village.

As if the chivalry within themselves was awakened, or their heroic nature was aroused, all the members of the legacy village wanted to delve into the forest alongside their young chief and the two leaders. Olivier was happy to see them being so willing to protect their fellow villagers or rather they were too willing which slightly triggered his cautious personality.

'Should I take them all with me? After all, we will need all the help we can get to fight against them. But what if we were attacked while we were gone and come back to see our own house burning into ashes?'

After some discussion, they decided to take half of the fighting members with them along this journey while leaving the rest to protect the village. Olivier, Kratos, Aria, Bjorn, mina, and some other villagers with who Olivier was quite familiar were selected. Of course, Arjuna the archer was also tagging along to acts as the guide for the rescue party.

Finally, they headed out towards the end of their village, where the wild begins!

As they entered the forest, Olivier noticed that the atmosphere became quite heavy and tense. Even the sound of their breathing was heard so loud and clear like the sound of a beating drum. The atmosphere was eery and quiet, the tall trees surrounding them from all directions bloating out the sun. The trees had broad trunks whose end could not be reached even with ten barbarians linking their arms around it, the trees were pointy at the tip with branches and leaves shaping them like a pointed edge of a spear. Those trees looked like a pine tree only bigger, taller, stronger, or whatever word there is to describe their immense body.

Arjuna led the way as she walked around the trees with great familiarity pointing out several marks they had left behind on the trees barks, bushes, or stones. The barbarians walked at the front with Krotos at their front meanwhile the archers followed behind them with silent footsteps like their shadows.

Olivier was having a hard time adjusting to this atmosphere, his every step landed on tree trunks making noises. He felt like a clumsy rhino. He was trying to avoid stepping on tree trunks as he watched everything carefully, his every step calculated causing the group to slow down.

"Calm your mind and breathe deeply, don't lower your gaze at the ground, look ahead. You will then notice all the things you should avoid even before reaching there. And always maintain your balance, spread your bodyweight equally through the sole of your feet". Aria silently whispered to Olivier noticing his clumsy movements.

Olivier nodded as he started to follow the guidelines as he clumsily followed behind the barbarians.

After walking for a long while, the group arrived at a large open space. The ground was parched black with the remnant of powered coals and ashes on the ground. It looked like the clearing was made with a forest fire.

"There's a ruin ahead. When we arrived here, there was no one around but this ruins looked like it was used for a small settlement." Arjuna explained as she walked towards the ruins. There were several dilapidated buildings with broken walls and torn-out roofs. There were five buildings in total, one large one-storeyed building with red-colored walls and pointy roof meanwhile the other building were rather narrow that looked like small cottages.

'This looked exactly like the single-player attack map. If my memory serves me right, there should be a small canon nearby.' Olivier thought as he moved around the ruins but he did not find the canon that was supposed to be here in the game.

"Let's search inside the building and see what we can find." Olivier suggested to the group as he walked inside the one=storeyed building. He was hoping to find some gold and elixir inside this building as successfully attacking this area would reward the players with golds and elixirs. But even after he searched the whole building, there was no sign of any resources causing him to frown.

'What's going on here?' Olivier thought as he was informed about the other buildings also being empty.

'There have been some changes in this area which is turning out to be quite different from the game. Well, the characters of the game are alive with their individual goal and personality so some change could be expected I guess.'

The rescue party moved deeper into the forest following behind Arjuna. They spotted several more ruins as they headed deeper but there was no sign of life.

Arjuna who was walking ahead of the group finally stopped in front of an open area that looked like a straight river dividing the forest into two parts. The dark patch of land was barren, no plants or grasses grew in that area as the dark patch itself gave out a dangerous and ominous aura. Fear. That was the first feeling he felt when he saw that open area that was dark and gloomy like a devil trampling ground.

"This area acts like a natural barrier scaring the lifeforms beyond this area from crossing over. We found several unique wild beasts in the other part of the forests that we have never even heard of before. but, they have one thing in common: they lack intelligence and are immensely bloodthirsty, We should be more careful."

"Won;t we be harmed by this 'barrier' if we crossed it?"

"No, other than inducing fear, this barrier does not have another function as far as we know."

Confirming that it was safe, the group crossed the 'barrier'. When they reached the other side, they were stunned. The scenery on the other side of the 'barrier' was completely different. The surrounding area suddenly got much darker causing their eyes to widen to adjust to the change in light. The cracking sound of several insects could be heard in the air in contrast to the deafening quietness on the other side.

The trees were much denser and several kinds of grasses and bushes grew on the bark of trees which occasionally flashed with blue. Some of the trees were curved at the start of their root creating a narrow passage for the group to pass through.

"How far are we from 'them'?" Olivier asked Arjuna as he looked around him formulating an action plan to carry out this mission swiftly.

"We are not far. After a few miles, we will see a clearing with fire torches lighting the surrounding. That is their camp, we will notice it right away after moving a little ahead".

"Good. Soes these kinds of trees grow in the vicinity of their base?" Olivier asked pointing at the trees with curved bases.

"Yes! They do." Arjuna replied in affirmative.

"Great! We will use those trees to our advantage and launch a hidden assault. And when we do, we will spare no one." Olivier said in a chilling tone as he started to explain the action plan that he had come with. He assigned roles to each person. When he was done speaking, members of the villages sprang into motion.

Meanwhile, deeper into the forest,

There was a large clearing between the tall trees, the grounds were similarly filled with ashes and powdered coal telling the story of a large forest fire. A few hundred meters away from the trees was a village with several buildings similar to the ones Olivier's group discovered back on the ruins. There was a large open space in between the building where a huge bonfire was burning. Several torches were lit up surrounding the perimeter of the village illuminating it.

There were several humanoid figures circling around the bonfires performing some kind of ritual dance. There were several more humanoid figures standing a few distances away from the bonfire, watching the ceremony being carried out. There were several containers made out of stone filled with a large pile of raw flesh inside it in front of each humanoid figure.

Behind the humanoid figure was a large chair with rough wooden patches. A large skull of a beast with two horns was placed in front of the chair. Another humanoid figure which was larger than the others sat in that chair, his feet on the skull.

The humanoid figures dancing around the bonfire were almost naked excluding the leather rag that hung around their waist tied with tree vines. They all had grotesque and ugly facial features with fangs growing out of their mouth, causing saliva to leak out of their mouth. They had weirdly shaped eyes with yellow-colored irises and black pupils. Their ears were slightly elongated with pointy features. Most of the humanoid creatures watching had a stone club on their hand.

Meanwhile, the one sitting on the chair had slightly different features from the rest of the creatures. It was larger than others with eagle-like talons instead of his arms and feet. His fangs were longer and pointer while his eyes were covered with crimson hue. Its head was covered with a red cap which was stinking with the smell of blood and decay. A large curved scythe was lying on the floor beside several dried bones.

Goblins!

They were GOBLINS! IN FLESH!

The goblins continued to dance around the bonfire as the others laughed and ate unaware of the killers hiding in the shadows.